sort of exploit, adventure, or even notable mishap, performed or sustained by an ancestor, whether in strict accordance with modern morality or not. The Armstrongs, with the genuine border feeling, are proud of the numbers of their name that have been hanged. When Mr. Popham christened his horse (the winner of the Derby) Wild Darell,' he invited attention to the manner in which his ancestor, the Chief Justice, is said to have obtained Littlecott. If he wants to go a little further back, he may quote

'Popham, Horner, and Thynne,

When the monks popped out, they popped in.'

Or the Horners may rely on the nursery rhyme, in which little Jack Horner' puts in his thumb and pulls out a plum, i. e. a grant of fat abbey lands.1 When the nuns of Wilton imploringly asked the Earl of Pembroke what was to become of them, he exclaimed, 'Go spin, you jades, go spin.' The Herberts do not need so modern an illustration, and may be content to drop it, unless indeed the late Lord Herbert's laudable patronage of needlewomen was intended as an atonement for his progenitor's hardheartedness to the sex.

The Burdetts shine out as of knightly distinction in the reign of Edward IV., by aid of the Sir Robert who was executed for conspiring the death of that monarch; although we do not place implicit reliance on Lord Campbell's statement that his sole offence lay in his saying, when his favourite white buck was killed by Edward I wish the buck, horns and all, in the King's belly.

1 The better accredited story is that John Horner was entrusted by the last Abbot of Glastonbury with a sum of money intended as a bribe to the Royal Commissioners, and concealed in a pie; the contents of which he appropriated to his own use. The Abbot was Abbot Whiting, who was hanged on Glastonbury Tor, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, that the abbey would flourish until a fish was seen to fly or float upon the Tor.

The Agincourt on the shield of the Wodehouses speaks trumpet-tongued; and the Fulfords of Great Fulford, should their share in the Crusades be questioned, may produce the written capitulation by which, after a gallant defence, they surrendered their house to Fairfax. The Ashburnhams claim to be lineally descended from the Ashburnham, or Eshburnham, high sheriff of Sussex and Surrey in 1066, to whom Harold wrote to assemble the posse comitatûs; and Fuller (writing in 1662), states that the original missive was 'lately' in the possession of the family.

The crest of the Cheneys, a bull's scalp, is said to have been won by Sir John Cheney, at Bosworth field, in a hand-to-hand encounter with Richard, who felled him to the ground by a blow which laid the upper part of his head bare. Though stunned by his fall, Sir John recovered after a while, and seeing an ox's hide near him, he cut off the scalp and horns to supply the place of the upper part of his helmet, and in this singular headgear performed miracles of valour. He was certainly created a Baron and a Knight of the Garter for his services at Bosworth, and it is said that the bull's scalp was also assigned him as a crest.

The crest of the Dudleys, of Clopton, was a woman's head helmeted, hair dishevelled, and throat-latch loose, proper. The story, as set down in writing by the parson of the parish in 1390, ran that the father of Agnes Hotot, a great heiress who married the Dudley of the day, having a dispute with one Ringsdale about an estate, it was agreed that they should meet on the debateable land and settle the title by single combat. Hotot, on the day appointed, was laid up with the gout, and the heiress, rather than the land should be lost, donned his armour and encountered Ringsdale, whom she unhorsed. On being declared the victor, she loosed her throat-latch, raised her helmet, and let down her hair about her shoulders, thus proclaiming her sex.

The crest of the Hamiltons is a tree with a saw through it, and their motto Through. The explanation is that Sir John Hamilton, grandson of the third Earl of Leicester, having killed John de Spencer, one of Edward II.'s courtiers, was obliged to fly for his life. When on the point of being overtaken, he and his attendant changed clothes with two woodcutters, and were in the act of sawing through a tree when their pursuers came up. To steady his attendant, who was looking round in a manner to excite suspicion, Sir John called out, Through. The descent of this family from the Earls of Leicester is apocryphal, and Debrett makes it begin with a Gilbert de Hameldun, whose name occurs in the Chartulary of Paisley, 1272.

The crest of the Stanleys, Earls of Derby, a child in an eagle's nest, is traced to an incident in the Lathom family, from whom they acquired Knowsley. Dugdale's story is, that Sir Thomas de Lathom, being without legitimate male issue, placed his illegitimate son in an eagle's nest in his park, and persuaded his wife to join with him in adopting it as an heir providentially bestowed upon them. The device of the Leslies, Grip Fast,' was granted by Margaret, Queen of Scotland (wife of Malcolm Cean Mohr), who, in crossing a flooded river, was thrown from her horse, and in imminent danger of being drowned, when Bartholomew Leslie seized her girdle and drew her to the bank. The crest of the Davenports, of Cheshire, is, ‘a man's head couped below the shoulders in profile, hair brown, a halter about his neck, proper.' Mr. Lower's explanation is that one of them, having been taken prisoner in the Wars of the Roses, was spared on condition that he and his posterity would adopt this badge of humiliation. It is not the kind of stipula

1 'The Curiosities of Heraldry, with Illustrations from Old English Writers.' By Mark Anthony Lower. London, J. R. Smith, 1845, sect. 9. This amusing and instructive writer has collected various other

tion that would be held binding on heirs, and in Ormerod's History of Cheshire,' the crest is said to have been assumed by one Vivian de Davenport, on being made Grand Serjeant, or principal thief-taker, of the hundred of Macclesfield, in the thirteenth century. Speaking of Richard de Percival, a follower of Richard Cœur de Lion, Mr. Drummond tells us :

It is said that, having lost a leg in an engagement in Palestine, he continued notwithstanding on horseback till he lost his arm also; and then that he still remained some time in his seat, holding the bridle with his teeth, till he fell from loss of blood and perished, in 1191. As much of the story as relates to his valour is confirmed by an account written by the King's secretary, Iscanus; and a man in armour, without a leg, was an ancient badge of the family, and was on many windows of their house at Weston.'

If we accept this, it would be unjust to doubt M. De Lamartine's account of the heroism of one of the French generals at Waterloo: General Lesourd, having received six sabre wounds, dismounts from his horse whilst his dragoons are rallying for a fresh charge, has his arm amputated and the blood stanched, remounts his horse, and charges with them.'1

2

The Luck of Edenhall' carries the Musgroves back into the olden time, although the story of the cup or chalice having been taken from the fairies, may live no longer in the faith of reason.' Many incredible legends may prove equally serviceable in the same way. Lady Morgan laid down that a Banshee was indispensable to a genuine old Irish family, and a haunted room has always been a coveted evi

instances of the same kind. See also Burke's 'Anecdotes of the Aristocracy,' vol. ii. p. 22.

1 Histoire de la Restauration,' book xxv.

2

According to the legend, the fairies who left the glass, flew singing :

away

VOL. III.

'If this glass shall break or fall

Farewell the luck of Edenhall !'

U

dence of distinction in a mansion. Neither are we prepared to dispute the traditions which carry back some families of the yeomanry, or even peasantry, to periods of remote or indefinite antiquity. A Brighton pastrycook (named Mutton) is said to hold land in Sussex which has been in the name and family since Henry I.; and the lineal representative of the woodman who assisted in conveying William Rufus to the nearest cottage still resides upon the spot. The family of Macnab, the blacksmith, the alleged possessors of the Ossianic manuscripts, were believed to have practised their craft in the same house for four hundred years. Dr. Franklin says that his ancestors lived in the same village, Ecton, in Northamptonshire, on a freehold of about thirty acres, for at least three hundred years, and how much longer could not be ascertained. The Webbers have occupied the Halberton Court farm (near Tiverton) as renting farmers, for more than 200 years.

There are instances in which it is impossible to reject tradition without rejecting the sole or best evidence of which the subject admits. But when family pride appeals to popular credulity, we may be pardoned for withholding an immediate or unhesitating assent, even at the bidding of Mr. Drummond, when he urges that it is not enough to be sceptical: that the sceptic must furnish some other heraldic fable and 'lucky fiction,' more probable than the story which has been received by the wisdom of our ancestors. If Robert de Yvery was not the said Eudo Britagne, let it be shown who the man was, who had power sufficient to wage successful war against the Count de Breteuil, take him prisoner, hang him up in the middle of winter in his shirt till it froze to his back, and compel him to give his daughter to his enemy in marriage.'

6

We demur altogether to this argument. We cannot consent to put up with presumptions and conjectures